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minox tank agitation/flow tests


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I was doing some testing tonight with my minox developing tank to test agitation/flow methods following my color developing experience and the seemingly undeveloped upper shots. I left the lid off and dropped the helix in, raised off the bottom slightly. A piece of white tape was stuck inside the tank in the area where the cassette would sit for visual contrast. I filled the tank with 60cc of water and added 3 drops of food coloring to the fill port. I applied the various methods, running a timer for 3.5 mins (C41 developing time) until I saw the red coloring appear over the white tape.

 

Thermometer pumping: no color appeared after 3.5 minutes

5cc medicine dropper pump: no color after 3.5 mins

Setting the tank on a vibrating neck massager on high: after 1:09 a steady bleed of color that continued until 3:30

20cc syringe with long, large needle pumping 10cc: after 2nd pump a burst of red, with a fresh burst after each pump.

I then machined 4 1mm deep grooves down each side of the helix and tried again.

20cc pumping 10cc: color burst after 1 pump and steady bursts after

20cc pumping 5cc: same color results as if pumping 10cc without the grooves, but with much less change in tank volume or overflow risk.

 

I didn't try the thermometer or medicine dropper with the grooves since the syringe was working so well and was much easier. I also did not try the massager again since it would be difficult to maintain developing temperature while using it. In the future I may add more grooves and will use the large syringe for my next development, I'm excited to see the results.

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  • 10 months later...
I was doing some testing tonight with my minox developing tank to test agitation/flow methods following my color developing experience and the seemingly undeveloped upper shots. I left the lid off and dropped the helix in, raised off the bottom slightly. A piece of white tape was stuck inside the tank in the area where the cassette would sit for visual contrast. I filled the tank with 60cc of water and added 3 drops of food coloring to the fill port. I applied the various methods, running a timer for 3.5 mins (C41 developing time) until I saw the red coloring appear over the white tape.

 

Thermometer pumping: no color appeared after 3.5 minutes

5cc medicine dropper pump: no color after 3.5 mins

Setting the tank on a vibrating neck massager on high: after 1:09 a steady bleed of color that continued until 3:30

20cc syringe with long, large needle pumping 10cc: after 2nd pump a burst of red, with a fresh burst after each pump.

I then machined 4 1mm deep grooves down each side of the helix and tried again.

20cc pumping 10cc: color burst after 1 pump and steady bursts after

20cc pumping 5cc: same color results as if pumping 10cc without the grooves, but with much less change in tank volume or overflow risk.

 

I didn't try the thermometer or medicine dropper with the grooves since the syringe was working so well and was much easier. I also did not try the massager again since it would be difficult to maintain developing temperature while using it. In the future I may add more grooves and will use the large syringe for my next development, I'm excited to see the results.

 

This is fascinating. I know too little about color processing even to ask intelligent questions. But I'm very eager to hear more.

 

Thank you,

Marc

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